Personal Essay

As a first-generation-born individual with a mixed cultural

background, it was assumed from an early age that I would attend a

university and excel in my studies. Both my parents and extended family

placed a large emphasis upon a successful education, notably higher

education, and deviating from this train of thought was unthinkable. This

expectation, among others in my life, caused me to seek out a multitude of

questions that led me on a physical and intellectual journey.

My quest for answers drew me from the comforts of America to Europe,

where I spent three months in solitude discovering many wonders: silly

roundabouts in London, flavorful red wine in Paris, epic boathouses in

Amsterdam, the Alps south of Bern, real beef in Florence, and the art of

doing nothing in Barcelona. At the end of my journey, my questions not

only went unanswered, but rather were intensified by what I had witnessed.

The notion of freedom that I had just experienced was a question that kept

reverberating in my mind. There is such a thing as physical freedom, of

which I have just written, and then there is an intellectual freedom of

which must be attained through rigorous study. Education is a freedom of

the mind and of the human spirit and cannot be subdued.

After completing my travel abroad I returned to George Mason

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